The Question
by moonfangpiercerofheaven
Summary: It was like Deja vu, hadn't she been aske this before? Well, whatever righ? Why would her answer be any diffent than last time...right...? "So Rukia, Do you like Ichigo?" Ichiruki Oneshot


"Do you like Ichigo?"

"PFFFFFT!!!" there went a whole mouthful of grape juice. Rukia Kuchikis eyes widened and she turned to the girl who had just spoken, juice still dripping from the corners of he mouth.

"W-wha…?" She said stupidly. She had not expected to be asked this question…at least…not again.

"Do you like Ichigo?" The girl, Mahana, one of Rukias friends at school, repeated.

"Seriously," She continued, "What's between you two?" Rukia stared at her. _Déjà vu_ much? Hadn't she been asked this question before? She smiled weakly at the group of girls surrounding and staring at her. Rukia was sitting with the girls from school on the grass under a large oak tree.

"Mahana! Gosh you're tactless!" Michiru scolded.

"Whatever!" Mahana defended herself, "You're all dying to know, but none of you had the guts to ask!" This conversation carried on. But Rukia was no longer listening. Hadn't she been asked this before? Then she remembered that that had been before she had been taken back to the Soul Society. Nobody except Orihime her knew that they had interrogated her about this before. All their memories of her had been erased. Including the one of them asking this question. Now they were asking it again.

"Well, what's going on?" Mahana suddenly asked Rukia, tearing her away from her thoughts.

"You're always clinging to him. Are you and Ichigo and item?" Rukia couldn't help it, but she froze up. Let's face it, she was no good at this type of thing. The last time she had been asked if she liked Ichigo, she had just shrugged it off. She had had more important and stressful matters on her mind. Like the fact that she could be taken back to the Soul Society any minute and be killed along with Ichigo. But now there was none of that, no danger of being taken any were, no threat to her or Ichigo…damn…

"Ichigo's just a friend," She hurriedly spit out.

"Is that so…?" Mahana said slowly.

"Yes!"

"Then why is your face the color of the apple you're eating?" Rukia silently prayed that she was eating a green apple…she wasn't…

"Awww! She's blushing!" One of the girls said. Rukia's eyes widened. There was no way she was blushing. She told herself that if she was, it was only because she had been caught off guard by the question. The little voice of reason in her head that most people have told her that she had been caught off guard last time too and she hadn't blushed then. Rukia decided then to take a leaf out of Ichigo's book and ignore that voice. Because the only other reason why she could be blushing is if she really did have feelings for…

"I knew it! You do like Ichigo!" Another girl exclaimed.

"I-I do not!" Crap! She was on the defensive in this battle. And it probably would have helped her if she was currently sure about her feelings of the orange headed boy.

"I think you do like him." A girl said.

"No!" Rukia exclaimed, "Why would I!? He's rude and always scowling!"

"True, but you should hear some of the things I hear about him." The girl replied.

"I heard that he takes on the local gangs so they won't cause trouble for anyone," A different girl said.

"I heard that he beat up a bunch of skateboarders just because they defiled a little girls memorial," Another said.

"Yeah," Mahana said, "He may be rude and stuff, but it's not like he's mean or anything," Rukia couldn't help but agree to her. Ichigo was a lot of things, rude, arrogant, a jerk…but mean wasn't one of them. In fact, she really couldn't find a word to describe him, the closest she could find was…kind…Rukia couldn't count the number of times she had found Ichigo beating on some local bullies, defending some defenseless girl or boy from them. And before performing _Konso_, he always offered some gruff, yet still kind words before he passed the spirit on. Rukia felt a smile creep across her face as the memories filled her.

"Hey look! She's smiling!" Crap, she had forgotten where she was!

"So you do like him!"

"No!" Rukia answered. No point in changing direction now and…wait! Why would she!? She didn't' like him!...Right…?

"Are you sure?" A girl asked, "You two do leave class a lot together…what exactly are you two doing…?" Rukias face could have cooked an egg at what the girl had implied. And the color of her face made a red apple look pale.

"NO! NO! NO! NO NO NO!" Rukia said wildly, "God! Trust me it's not that!"

"Yeah come on! It's Rukia! She wouldn't be doing stuff like that!" another girl said. There were murmurs of agreement. After that the group fell silent for a bit. Rukia was grateful as she tried to het her heart to slow down.

"…SO…you really don't like him?" Mahana finally asked. Rukia shook her head.

"Oh…to bad," She shrugged, "Cuz I know he likes you," Well, so much for getting her heart rate under control. Rukia's head shot up at the words.

"Huh!?" She practically shouted. Mahana looked at her in surprise.

"He likes you, and I don't mean like junior high crush likes you, I'm talking soap opera love like you." If Rukia was probe to such things, she probably would have fainted. Why? She was telling herself it would have been from shock. But she didn't faint, instead, she just stared open mouthed. Hope swelling in her chest, much to her own annoyance.

"H-how do you know?" Rukia asked. Mahana blinked at her.

"Everyone knows," She stated. Everyone nodded their heads in simultaneous agreement.

"It's so obvious," Tasuki piped up, "If you know him well enough, you can read that idiot like a book. Trust me, he loves you," Well Rukia was one of the few people who could read Ichigo like a book, but she must of skipped that chapter, because this was all news to her.

Rukia didn't pay much attention to what happened during the rest of lunch. She kept getting distracted by thought of him, Ichigo Kurosaki. She kept thinking about him, his orange hair, his occasional smile, his loud, gruff, yet somehow caring voice, his toned muscles she'd seen the few times she's seen him shirtless and…Okay! Stop there! She commanded herself.

She shook her head, trying to shake the thoughts of him away. It didn't work. She sighed and looked up into the sky. The sun was pounding down hard today. That's why they were all taking refuge under the shade of the tree. The burning ball of fire caused a memory to float to the surface.

Rukia remembered Ichigo standing there, floating in the air, blocking off the _Hogyoku_ that was to be the instrument of her execution. She remembered every detail of that day. She could easily recall his smirking face. He had been smiling when he rescued her and his brown eyes seemed to dance in the fire surrounding them. Rukia couldn't help but smile as his smiling face filled her mind.

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Rukia saw Ichigo standing near the school exit, waiting for her…like he always did. Rukia smiled slightly at the thought. As she neared him Ichigo caught sight of her. He turned towards her.

"Hey," He greeted, "Ready to go?" She nodded. Ichigo turned and walked out of the school. Rukia followed behind him. As they walked, they walked in silence. Rukia's head was still full from the earlier conversation, so she was unusually quiet. Ichigo noticed this.

"Hey, what's up with you?" He asked. Rukia looked at him.

"You're pretty quite," He continued, "I mean, you usually say…something,"

"I…Just got a lot on my mind," She replied. Ichigo looked at her.

"Is…there something wrong?" He asked carefully. Rukia looked up at him again. His face was impassive but his eyes held concern, concern for her. Rukia smiled as she shook her head.

"Nope, everything great," She was telling the truth. Ichigo rose and eyebrow but didn't stop looking at her. She smirked at him.

"I'm fine strawberry," Ichigo rolled his eyes and looked away, muttering something that sounded like 'weirdo'.

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Ichigo scowled as he found her in his room, reading some stupid manga on his bed. He had been looking for her. She had been unusually silent all day, barely saying a word to him or even his sisters. He was determined to find out what the problem was.

In Rukia's defense it really couldn't be helped. After al, realizing that you love someone is kind of a big deal. She had been consumed with these thoughts and even after she had admitted to herself that she did love him back, it was kind of hard not to after all they had been through together, she had argued with herself on the fact if she should tell Ichigo how she felt. But of course Ichigo didn't know any of that.

"Hey Rukia," He said in his usual tone as he walked over to his bed.

"I'm reading," She said simply, not even looking up at him. She had been trying to take a break from thinking about Ichigo. Just her luck that the real thing shows up. Then again it was his room. Ichigo grabbed the manga from her hands.

"Now we're talking," He said. She glared at him but didn't say anything. He pointed his finger at her.

"You've been acting weird all day, what's up with you?" She scowled at him.

"None of you're business," She said to him. He scowled back.

"I'll make it my business," He glared at her.

"And how will you do that?" She glared back.

"Easy, either you tell me, or I take you're chappy plushy and use it for Getsuga Tensho target practice," She shot daggers at him with her eyes.

"You wouldn't dare," She said sternly.

"Maybe, maybe not, but I know you Rukia, and I know plenty of ways to make your life hell, so hurry up and spit it our before I go rabbit hunting," She huffed.

"Fine," She hissed. She really didn't have a choice, She knew Ichigo wouldn't stop until he found out. The fact that he was threatening her told her that he cared about her enough to actually threaten her to tell him what was wrong. Either that or he was just looking for an excuse to blow up Chappy…Anyway, might as well tell him. What's the worse that could happen, besides being totally rejected…but if what Tasuki had told her was true…

Rukia sat up and swung her legs off the side of the bed. She opened her mouth but no words came out. Her anger had been replaced by nervousness. To think that Rukia Kuchiki, the girl that Soul Reapers and Hollows alike feared, was having scared of stuff like this…Ichigo raised and eyebrow at her.

"Well?" He asked.

"Fine…" She said again, "Well…a-at school…the girls…uh…they asked me if…" She trailed off and she was playing with her hands nervously.

"If?" Ichigo probed.

"If I liked you," She spat out. His reaction wasn't what she expected it to be. He merely looked away and shrugged.

"I get asked stuff like that too," She said to her, "I guess because we hang out so much and stuff…" He said. Rukia nodded.

"Well yeah, but…" He mouth suddenly felt dry. It really was now or never. "But…I've been thinking about it and they…well…told me some things..." Ichigo looked at her.

"I…don't really get what you're saying," He said carefully. He wanted clarification.

"W-well, when they asked me. I really couldn't help but thing about it and…a-and I was thinking that maybe…that maybe…" She was stammering and she was looking down at the floor. She was disgusted with herself. She was Rukia Kuchiki, she shouldn't be having problems with this. Her eyes were glued to the floor, so she didn't see the corners of Ichigo's mouth tilt upwards. He knelt down in font of her.

"You were thinking that maybe you do like me?" He asked. Now he really was smiling, or smirking, it was kind of hard to tell. Rukia blushed and looked away.

"M-maybe…" She whispered. Ichigo leaned towards her so he could hear better. This only made her blush more.

"A-and Tasuki…uh…told me that," She needed to confirm this, "That you li…no…l-love me…?" She said weakly. Ichigo's eyes widened and he quickly looked down at the ground. Rukia looked at him. She couldn't see his face.

"Ichigo?"

"Damn her and her big ass mouth," Ichigo muttered angrily. Rukias' eyes widened and she swore her heart stopped.

"W-wait! Then you really do…l-love me!?" She stuttered. Ichigo slowly looked back up at her. His eyes were just like they were when he rescued her. His mouth turned into to a full on smirk. He was never one to ignore his feelings.

"M-maybe," He mimicked her. Rukia couldn't help herself. It felt like a million pounds had been lifted form her shoulders., She threw her arms around Ichigo and kissed him passionately. Needless to say, Ichigo was surprised. But then again, this was Rukia, the girl liked to go all out when she was doing things. So he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back. After a minute or so they broke apart, needing air. And Ichigo, being Ichigo, couldn't help but tease Rukia about all this.

"So…I don't think that question was answered, do you like me?" Rukia rolled her eyes and he got a kiss as an answer. She smirked against his lips.

"I think I do like you, Ichigo," She smirked as she pulled away.

"Good," He replied and kissed her again.

"I think I like you too,"


End file.
